LinkStur News

A pleasantly cool and sunny day with moderate wind provided the setting for some exciting golf at the Westwood Golf Club in New Jersey. Unfortunately, nice weather brings out the fair weather golfers and the scheduled 10:15 tee time (which was actually 10:40) was eventually pushed back to 11:50. The last foursome of the league would eventually clocked in at 5:00.

The day started off with some of Max McHenry’s friends helping him mark his golf balls to avoid the lost ball dilemma he had at Pickering Valley. Hmmm, this might be the start of a new prize category, ‘Best Ball Art’!!

Max had no trouble finding his ball at Westwood

It turned out to be a prize winning day for the members of the first group (Mike Brychcy, Vince Caligiuri, Roman Hrycushko, & Bryan Baquer). Out of all the foursome’s on the course they were selected by the owner, who personally observed their exploits, to receive copies of the award winning book, ‘Golfing Etiquette’. When asked about it afterwards the group was too humble to single out the play of any one individual. Elsewhere, in Group 2, Kevin Stevenson spent the day teaching his playing partner Tom Dushkewich the correct technique for removing shrubbery using either a golf ball or in more stubborn cases, the golf club itself. Tom confided in us later (after a few brewskies) that some fairways resembled the aftermath of Hurricane Agnes when Kevin was done. But, the most pressing issue arising out of Saturday’s play had to do with who played ‘hide the sausage’ with Bob Welc’s prized sandwedge?

The Case of the Misplaced Club

While we were all waiting patiently in line for the start of our matches, Bob Welc, playing in the last group, went through his usual pre-match ritual of checking his golf clubs. Bob was alarmed to discover that his prized sandwedge was not in his bag. He first told Steve Margetich, who did not give him any sympathy because he too would be playing without his sandwedge which is resting comfortably on the 9^th hole at Pickering Valley. Bob even explored purchasing one of the used clubs for sale at the clubhouse but there was not a wedge amongst them. The trooper that he is, Bob did not let this interfere with the task at hand of beating Herman Ellzy. After Bob completed the 2^nd hole, lamenting that he could have won the hole had his trusty sandwedge been available, Mike Fuller, Steve’s opponent, discovered a foreign club in his bag. You guessed it, the mysterious club in Mike’s bag turned out to be Bob’s elusive sandwedge. To say the least, Bob was furious. Who would have perpetrated a dastardly act like this (other than Bob himself). Bob spent the entire 3^rd hole accusing everyone in the league who might have a grudge to settle with him (like I said, everyone in the league). In all fairness to Bob, this did cross the line for a ‘practical joke’ since it did directly effect the ability of a player to compete. After interrogating his own foursome he caught up with the 3^rd group on the 4^th hole and began pressing them. Bob first tried the ‘divide and conquer’ approach, on his two likely candidates, by telling Ron Jones that Steve had accused him and going back to Steve with Ron having accused him. Needless to say this would go on for the remainder of the afternoon!! The first question to be answered is, why this particular club. Could it be related to Steve’s loosing his wedge at Pickering Valley and the unknown culprit mistakenly taking the club from Bob’s bag and putting it in Mike’s bag by mistake, thinking it was Steve’s. Does anyone care???

Give Us A Break, Bob!!!!

I think we all agree that this was a practical joke that went a little too far, but, give us a break Bob. We do have a few ‘characters’ in the league, but, when you ask someone, face to face, if they were involved in this joke and they say no, then they mean NO!! Whoever was ‘man enough’ to do this is ‘man enough’ to admit it, if you ask him! Continuing on your current path will probably result in a few players leaving the league in frustration (We don’t like to be called LIARS!!). We are all here to play golf.

A Division Matchups

In spite of the ‘circus-like’ atmosphere surrounding the match between Bob Welc and Herman Ellzy a very competitive game was played. Herman would par the 7^th hole to square the match, with both players bogeying the last two holes to halve the front 9. Herman would play the back nine like a ‘man on a mission’, paring four holes and birdying the 18^th in route to a 6.5/2.5 win giving him 2.5 points for the day and 1^st place in the A Division.

Herman kept the heat on Bob with chips like this

Ron Jones and Dick Blystone played in the closest match in the A Division. In a see-saw battle on the front 9, Ron would bogey the 9^th to force a 4.5/4.5 split. In another ‘nail-biter’ on the back 9, Dick would take the lead with a par on the tough 17^th hole, with both players bogeying the 18^th , giving Dick a hard fought 5/4 victory and 2.5 points for the day. Doug Perks made good use of 4 pars, and a birdy on the 2^nd hole, to hold off a stubborn Roy Craig on the front nine 5.5/3.5 . Roy put together an outstanding par/bogey round on the back to win 6.5/2.5 and claim 2 points.

Doug's looking in 'mid-season' form

Bryan Baquer opened his round with Roman Hrycushko with a birdy and par and would add four more par’s to hold off Roman on the front 5.5/3.5 . In spite of shooting a decent round on the back nine, Roman had to endure 5 more par’s and a birdy from Bryan who would take the back 5.5/3.5 to walk away with 3.0 points.

B Division Matchups

Tom Dushkewich went toe-to-toe with Kevin Stevenson through the first six holes on the front before Kevin would bogey out the last three holes to take the front 6/3. On the back, Kevin used par’s on 12 and 13 to slow Tom down and win 6/3 taking 3.0 points, maintaining his stranglehold on first place in the B Division.

Kevin's cutting some grass in the fairway

Max McHenry and Bob Perks played the closest match in the B Division with Max coming back after being down by 3 holes early on the front to win the 5^th, 6^th and 7^th forcing them both to par the 9^th to tie 4.5/4.5. The back 9 proved to be just as exciting with Max taking a 2 hole lead into the 16^th forcing Bob to ‘suck it up’ and par the 16^th and outlast Max on the 17^thwith both bogeying the 18^th to tie 4.5/4.5 and share a hard fought 1.5 points. Vince Caligiuri jumped out to a three hole lead on Mike Brychcy only to see Mike bear down and take the next four holes to win the front 5/4. This didn’t sit to well with Vince, who would take the first four holes on the back and cruise to a 6/3 win and two points. Mike Fuller let Steve Margetich off the hook early, with some ‘hard luck’ putting, allowing Steve to take the front 6/3 (closer than the score would indicate). On the back Mike could have jumped out to an early three hole lead, were it not for some untimely three puts, but Mike would still force Steve to bogey the 18^th to take the back nine 5/4 and sneak away with 3 points.

Closest to the Pin Winners (Westwood)

Front Nine: (hole#5) Roy Craig(1)

Back Nine: (hole#13) [none]

Roy's demonstrating how to finish off a swing

Sandbagger of the Week

No one even came close!

Handicaps/Pairings at 5 Ponds

1^st Group

Herman E. (14) vs. Kevin S. (28)

Doug P. (22) vs. Steve M. (31)

2^nd Group

Bryan B. (12) vs. Vince C. (31)

Dick B. (16) vs. Bob P. (27)

3^rd Group

Roy C. (25) vs. Max M. (29)

Bob W. (19) vs. Mike B. (36)

4^th Group

Roman H. (25) vs. Tom D. (36)

Ron J. (17) vs. Mike F. (36)

Handicap --- Breakdown

To minimize the confusion of strokes at Five Ponds, Bob Welc has graciously figured out the handicap breakdown for each pairing to avoid confusion (What a nice guy!!!). Note, the numbers refer to the HANDICAP of the hole, not the hole number itself, so you'll have to do a little figuring out!!!

Herman is giving Kevin 14 strokes

No strokes on 6,7,11,12. One stroke on all the rest.

Doug is giving Steve 9 strokes

Strokes on 1,2,3,4,5,8,9,10,13

Bryan is giving Vince 19 strokes

One stroke on each hole, 2 strokes on #1 handicap hole

Dick is giving Bob P. 11 strokes

Strokes on 1,2,3,4,5,8,9,10,13,14,15

Roy is giving Max 4 strokes

Strokes on 1,2,3,4

Bob W. is giving Mike B. 17 strokes

One stroke on all holes except the 17^th hole (Par 3, hdcp #12)

Roman is giving Tom 11 strokes

Strokes on 1,2,3,4,5,8,9,10,13,14,15

Ron is giving Mike F. 19 strokes

One stroke on each hole, 2 strokes on #1 handicap

Closest to the Pin Holes at Five Ponds

Front Nine: Hole #3

Back Nine: Hole #17

{both over water!!!!}

Remember: next gameday is July 1^st, at Spring Hollow. Be ready to tee off at 9:45am. Call the course at (610)-948-5566 if you require directions.

Volume 3, Issue 4 June 17, 2000